Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T17:21:36.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A late pleistocene human presence at Huaca Prieta, Peru, and early Pacific Coastal adaptations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Tom D. Dillehay*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA Escuela de Antropología, Universidad Católica de Temuco, Temuco, Chile
Duccio Bonavia
Affiliation:
Academia Nacional de Historia, Lima, Perú
Steve L. Goodbred Jr.
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Mario Pino
Affiliation:
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile
Victor Vásquez
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Bioarqueología, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú
Teresa Rosales Tham
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Bioarqueología, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, TN, USA. E-mail address:[email protected] (T.D. Dillehay).

Abstract

Archaeological excavations in deep pre-mound levels at Huaca Prieta in northern Peru have yielded new evidence of late Pleistocene cultural deposits that shed insights into the early human occupation of the Pacific coast of South America. Radiocarbon dates place this occupation between ~ 14,200 and 13,300 cal yr BP. The cultural evidence shares certain basic technological and subsistence traits, including maritime resources and simple flake tools, with previously discovered late Pleistocene sites along the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile. The results help to expand our knowledge of early maritime societies and human adaption to changing coastal environments.

Type
Short Paper
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bird, J.B., Hyslop, J., Skinner, M.D., (1985). Preceramic Excavations at Huaca Prieta, Chicama Valley,Peru. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Briceño, J., (1999). Quebrada Santa Maria: Las Puntas en Cola de Pescado y la Antigüedad del Hombre en Sudamerica. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP. 3, 1939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chauchat, C., Pelegrin, J., (2003). Projectile Point Technology and Economy: a Case Study from Paiján, North Coastal Peru: Pampa de Los Fosiles 14, Unit 1. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University, College Station.Google Scholar
Collins, M.B., (1997). The lithics from Monte Verde: a descriptive/morphological analysis. Dillehay, Tom D., Monte Verde: a Late Pleistocene Site in Chile, The Archaeological Context. Volume II, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 386503.Google Scholar
Dillehay, T.D., (1997). Monte Verde: a Late Pleistocene site in Chile. The Archaeological Context. Volume II, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC..Google Scholar
Dillehay, T.D., (2000). The Settlement of the Americas: a New Prehistory. Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Dillehay, T.D., (2011). From Foraging to Farming in the Andes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Dillehay, T.D., Bonavia, D., Goodbred, S., Pino, M., Vasquez, V., Rosales Tham, T., Conklin, W., Splitstoser, J., Piperno, D., Iriarte, J., Grobman, A., Levi-Lazzaris, G., Moreira, D., Lopéz, M., Tung, T., Titelbaum, A., Verano, J., Adovasio, J., Scott-Cummings, L., Bearéz, P., Dufour, E., Tombret, O., Ramirez, M., Beavins, R., DeSantis, L., Rey, I., Mink, P., Maggard, G., Franco, T., (2012). Chronology, mound-building, and environment at Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru, from 13,700 to 4,000 years ago. Antiquity. 86, 4870.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erlandson, J.M., Graham, M.H., Bourque, B.J., Corbett, D., Estes, J.A., Steneck, R.S., (2007). The kelp highway hypothesis: marine ecology, the coastal migration theory, and the peopling of the Americas. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. 2, 161174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fladmark, K.R., (1979). Routes: alternate migration corridors for early man in North America. American Antiquity. 44, 5569.Google Scholar
Goy, J., Machare, L., Ortlieb, L., Zazo, C., (1992). Quaternary shorelines in southern Peru: a record of global sea-level fluctuations and tectonic uplift in Chala Bay. Quaternary International. 15–16, 99112.Google Scholar
Gruhn, R., (1994). The Pacific Coast route of initial entry: an overview. Bonnichsen, R., Steele, D.G., Method and Theory for Investigating the Peopling of the Americas, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 3444.Google Scholar
Jackson, D., Méndez, C., Seguel, R., Maldonado, A., Vargas, G., (2007). Initial occupation of the Pacific Coast of Chile during late Pleistocene times. Current Anthropology. 48, 725731.Google Scholar
Jones, K.B., (2009). Mollusk-Shell Radiocarbon as a Paleo-Upwelling Proxy in Peru. . Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Keefer, D.K., de France, S.D., Moseley, M.E., Richardson III, J.B., Satterlee, D.R., Day-Lewis, A., (1998). Early maritime economy and el niño events at Quebrada Tacahuay. Science. 281, 18331835.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kipnis, R., (1998). Early hunter-gatherers in the Americas: perspectives from Central Brazil. Antiquity. 72, 581592.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K., Esat, T.M., Potter, E.K., (2002). Links between climate and sea levels for the past three million years. Nature. 419, 199206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lauer, W., (1968). Die glaziallandschaft des südchilenischen Seengebietes. Acta Geographica. 20, 215236.Google Scholar
Lavallée, D., (2000). The First South Americans. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Lavallée, D., Julien, M., Bearéz, P., Bolaños, A., Carré, M., Chevalier, A., Delabarde, T., Fontugne, M., Rodríguez-Loredo, C., Klaric, L., Usselmann, P., Vanhaeren, M., (2011). Quebrada Los Burros. Los primeros pescadores del litoral Pacífico en el extremo sur peruano. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena. 43, 320.Google Scholar
Lea, D.W., Martin, P.A., Pak, D.K., Spero, H.J., (2003). 350 kyr sea level reconstruction and foraminifer isotope data, IGBP PAGES/World Data Center A for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series #2003-010. NOAA/NGDC. (Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder.Google Scholar
Leverett, F., (1898). The weathered zone (Sangamon) between the Iowan loess and Illinoian till sheet. Journal of Geology. 6, 171188.Google Scholar
Llagostera, A., (1979). 9,700 years of maritime subsistence on the Pacific: an analysis by means of bioindicators. American Antiquity. 44, 309324.Google Scholar
Llagostera, A., (1992). Early occupations and the emergence of fishermen on the Pacific Coast of South America. Andean Past. 3, 87109.Google Scholar
Llagostera, A., Weisner, R., Castillo, G., Cervellino, M., Costa-Junqueria, M.A., (2000). El Complejo Huentelauquen bajo una Perspectiva Macroespacial y Multidisciplinaria. Contribución Arqueológica. 5, 461482.Google Scholar
Lodeho, L., (2012). Les Premiers Peuplements du Nord du Pérou: L'apport de la Tecnologie Litique a la Définition des Ensembles Culturels et de Leurs Relations a la Fin du Pléistocéne el a l'Holocéne Ancien el Moyen . Doctoral dissertation, Université Paris 1, Oanthéon-Sorbonne, France.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D.J., (2009). First Peoples in a New World, Colonizing Ice Age America. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Núñez, L., Varela, J., Casamiquela, R., Villagrán, C., (1994). Reconstrucción multidisciplinaria de la ocupación prehistórica de Quereo, centro de Chile. Latin American Antiquity. 5, 99118.Google Scholar
Ortlieb, L., (1989). Evolución Climatica al Final del Cuartenario en Las Regiones Costeras del Norte Peruano: Breve Reseña. Bulletin Institute Français Études Andines. 18, 143160.Google Scholar
Politis, G.G., Gutierrez, M., Scabuzzo, C., (2011). Estado actual de las investigaciones arqueológicas en el sitio Arroyo Seco 2. Pdo. De Tres Arroyos, Pcia. de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Serie Monográfica. Serie Monográfica, INCUAPA. No 4, Olavarría.Google Scholar
Richardson, J.B. III, (1981). Modeling the development of sedentary maritime economies on the coast of Peru: a preliminary statement. Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 50, 139150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saillard, M., Hall, S.R., Audin, L., Farber, D.L., Regard, V., Herail, G., (2011). Andean coastal uplift and active tectonics in southern Peru: Be-10 surface exposure dating of differentially uplifted marine terrace sequences (San Juan de Marcona, similar to 15.4 degrees S). Geomorphology. 128, 178190.Google Scholar
Sandweiss, D.H., McInnis, H., Burger, R.L., Cano, A., Ojeda, B., Paredes, R., Sandweiss, M.C., Glascock, D., (1998). Quebrada Jaguay: Early South American maritime adaptations. Science. 281, 18301832.Google Scholar
Santoro, C., (1985). Antiguos cazadores de la Puna (9.000 a 6.000 a.c.). Hidalgo, J., Culturas de Chile: Prehistoria, desde sus orígenes hasta los albores de la conquista. Editorial Andrés Bello, Santiago, 3355.Google Scholar
Siddall, M., Rohling, E.J., Almogi-Labin, A., Hemleben, C., Meischner, D., Schmelzer, I., Smeed, D.A., (2003). Sea-level fluctuations during the last glacial cycle. Nature. 423, 853858.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stothert, K., (1985). The preceramic Las Vegas culture of coastal Ecuador. American Antiquity. 50, 613637.Google Scholar
Wells, E.L., (1986). The Santa beach ridge complex: sea-level and progradational history of an open gravel coast in central Peru. Journal of Coastal Research. 12, 117.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Dillehay et al. Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material

Download Dillehay et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 10.3 MB